Margaret River 13th - 22nd April 2013

Margaret River

Just had to clean, the car, it was a pig, the van is a pig, there is dust and dirt everywhere. We are staying in a beautifully clean park where the van and awning are situated on pavers. We are only a walk out of town and close to everything. Spent all day cleaning, vacuuming and washing.

Calgardup Caves, amazing and slightly bewildering all at the same time. These limestones caves we originally formed by limestone being dissolved by water and then large sections collapsing forming caves. Huge stalactites, stalagmites and walls of flowstone. You descend into the cave by large

stainless steel staircases and have wooden walkways with stainless steel handrails guiding you in the absolute blackness. You are given a helmet with headlight as well as a handheld torch. The handrails dip when you need to duck your head.

You can't help but wonder how these large caverns don't come crashing down. Roots from Kari trees hang down like wet hair hanging from the ceiling. The flowrock which is dissolved limestone looks like water frozen in time. Some parts of it are coloured by
We dropped into Swallows Welcome, a winery recommended to us by some people we met at Parry's Beach. The first thing I noticed was the wedding chapel, mud brick with stained glass windows, rough sawn timber floors, I just fell in love with it. Patricia is an illustrator who specialises in native plants and has produced many books for the West Australian government and other organisations. She is a fantastic person and just sat and chatted to us for ages in

the chapel. Patricia has taught herself how to do woodwork and has made the seating, tables and huge wooden doors for the chapel. Both Patricia and her husband have built everything on their property.

 

They have even sourced most of the materials from their property. We then met Tim, Patricia's husband. Tim is in his 70's loves loud operatic music, makes wine and loves a chat as well. He is very eccentric but this is what is so interesting. Other people dropped in while we were there and Tim just ignored them and kept chatting to us. He makes his wine in an open shed, it is known as the smallest winery in Margaret River. Tim had only just finished pressing some grapes so he was a little tired but it didn't slow his conservation down, mind you I was finding it hard to listen every time one of the music pieces was hitting a crescendo. The wine was ok, even Trice tried the port which as she said she tolerated. He tends to use about 30% Cabernet Franc in his Cabernet Sauvignon. I also tried his Merlot blend but preferred the Cabernet Sav/Franc blend. 

 

Patricia's illustrative work is outstanding, one display  was a sea dragon that her grandson had found, she drew the sea dragon and then mounted it all in a frame, it looked she had taken a photo of the sea dragon. It was now too late to visit any other wineries so we headed back to the van.

 

We travelled the town looking for a hairdresser for Trice, starting price was $75. I looked at Patrice and she looked at me so I said I will have a go. Back to the van and out came the scissors, the bloody figure holes are too small for my fingers and Trice's hair is like horse hair. After much deliberation she allowed me to have a go with the clippers as I was adamant that I could do a better job with the clippers. Well after hair went everywhere I was very happy with the final result, now for Trice to have a look as mirrors were banned throughout the procedure. Believe it or not she was very happy. Since this event 2 hairdressers have seen it and did not believe that I had done it and certainly did not believe that I had used clippers. Signs and hairdressing could be my new found profession.

Kevin and Belinda arrived and after hugs and kisses we headed off to town and yes we ended up in the Margaret River Pub as the Rugby League test match was on.

The next day we headed off to see a bit of the sights including the Jewel Cave, spectacular, a bit different to the Calgardup Caves as this one was privately run and far more commercialised.

The lighting was fantastic as far more civilised that the National Park run caves. Onto Augusta,

Hamlin Bay to see the Stingrays and Cosey corner, we were exhausted after a pretty full day.

We organised Wine tour with Cheers which took us to Watershed and Evans and Tate Wineries, first class and very informative. The Venison farm followed by Knotting Hill winery and of course the Margaret

River Chocolate Factory. The Cheese factory preceded the slower pace of the Colonial brewery, what a day, I am exhausted once again.

It was great to see Kevin and Belinda who were fabulous, it made us realise that 6 months on the road had slowed us down a bit and this hectic pace tired us out.